The Price of Mason

by Linda Kage

  “That’s good.” I nodded, glad to know she still kept vigilant and on guard, no matter what.

  She sent me a strange look, so I flushed and kept talking. “I mean, it’s always good to be safe and prepared, not just for that guy, but anything that might happen.”

  She studied me a moment before smiling and nodding. “Too true.”

  Then she took my hand and tugged me off the counter. “Now let’s get back to our marathon.”

  * * *

  After we finished the last movie in the series, Reese decided we should start with the first one since I didn’t remember anything from it.

  We watched half of it together before my butt began to grow numb from sitting in front of the television for so long. Catching my wince, Reese stood and stretched, yawning and reaching for her remote to turn the movie off.

  As she arched her back and strained her hands above her head, the front of her shirt pulled taut over her breasts, causing the hem to lift and reveal a line of flesh at her abdomen. My dick twitched as I watched the mesmerizing sight, and I wondered if she’d jump again like a startled doe if I grasped her waist and pulled her down onto my lap.

  Before I could attempt it, though, she glanced at me, and said, “Your family’s going to forget who you are. You better get home soon.”

  I blinked. What? Was she kicking me out? It felt a hell of a lot like she was kicking me out.

  “O…kay,” I said slowly, even though the guy in me wanted to whine and stamp my feet and complain that we hadn’t even used any of the condoms I’d gotten earlier. They were still sitting by the front door, neglected. My poor cock felt neglected. And now she was kicking me out.

  Dread and panic swelled in my throat. She must still be upset about whoever had texted my phone when I’d been out this morning. Or maybe she was feeling some of the guilt oozing off me because not telling her about Jeremy was definitely eating at me. It’d be a miracle if she didn’t sense some kind of tension from me.

  I was so torn up with it that I couldn’t even argue when she found my shoes on the floor and tossed them to me.

  Yep, that was definitely a dismissal.

  I looked down at them a moment, hoping this wasn’t the end of us forever, and that maybe she just needed one night to deal with the fact that she was now dating an ex-gigolo. Drawing in a deep breath, I reached down and slid my shoes on.

  When I stood, she was back to wringing her hands uneasily, and I suddenly felt just as unsure as she looked. Was it okay to kiss her goodnight?

  Fucking hell. What in God’s name had happened in the past few hours to bring us to this? I didn’t like the distance. So I stepped forward, erasing it, and I wrapped my arms around her before I kissed her hair. Besides, at least this way I would know for sure that she was done with me if she stiffened in my arms and pushed me away.

  But all she did was melt against my chest and gather fistfuls of the back of my shirt in her hands as she released a long breath of relief and hugged me hard.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I told her.

  She pulled back and smiled up at me as if thanking me for the reassurance. “I’ll see you tomorrow for lunch?” she asked. “At our table.”

  “Definitely.” When I leaned down to press my lips to hers, she kissed me back heartily, even though she didn’t open her mouth for me. So I took that to mean she needed a night—just one night—off, but we weren’t over with forever.

  I pulled back, smoothed my hand over her hair as I gazed into her eyes, grateful for everything I’d gotten from her, and then I turned toward the door.

  But no sooner did I pull into my own drive when images of that Malfoy wannabe began to haunt me. What if the guy had been Jeremy, and he’d followed me from her place, where he’d been stalking us, watching me buy condoms and lattes, only to follow me back there? Fuck, why hadn’t I asked Reese if I could see a picture of her ex?

  The sun had set and the evening was still warm when I made my way from my Jeep to the back door. I refused to glance toward the neighbor’s house, to check whether my own psycho was watching me or not. I refused to give her the satisfaction of knowing I was even thinking about her.

  Sarah and Mom were at the kitchen table, eating a late supper. My sister smiled and waved, while Mom lifted her eyebrows as if surprised to see me. I grabbed a plate and joined them, because food. I never turned down food.

  “So, you and Reese, huh?” Mom asked as she watched me construct a pile of salad fixings.

  I shot her a quick glance. “You okay with that?”

  “I…” Her gaze slid to Sarah before she turned back to me. “I mean, yeah. Yes, of course. I adore her. I’m just surprised. In a good way,” she rushed to add before a relieved kind of smile lit her face. “I’m just so happy to see you settling down.”

  A.K.A. she was happy to hear I’d given up my side work, which meant she hadn’t been happy with me selling myself in the first place. That actually cheered me up. She’d never lectured me or demanded that I stop or even asked me to, but at least now I knew she’d cared enough to dislike it. Maybe the woman didn’t hate me after all.

  I smiled back at her. “Yeah,” I agreed. “Me too.”

  Sarah started teasing me then, begging me to marry Reese so she could have her as a sister. I tried to convince her that I was so awesome I was the only sibling she’d ever need. And she finally relented enough to agree that I was okay, for being a gross boy, but she’d liked to have Reese around forever too…for girl things.

  Our bantering kept me busy through the rest of supper and into cleaning the dishes. After that, the kid talked me into reading some Harry Potter with her. Since I’d watched the movies all day and knew what was going to happen, I kept pausing to drop hints, which seriously ticked her off. When she slugged me and hissed, “Shh,” as soon as I would stop reading, I knew I’d done my big-brother job well and successfully aggravated her enough to cool it with the teasing for now. So I chuckled, giving in, and continued with the story without any spoiler alerts.

  After she fell asleep, however, my worry about Reese mounted. I really didn’t like leaving her alone, even though she’d assured me earlier that she was being cautious. I decided to pop her a quick text.

  Mason: Night, Sweet Pea. Sleep well all alone in that big empty bed without me.

  Certain that would prompt some kind of response, either about the actual size of her minuscule bed or the chauvinist suggestion that she needed me around in order to sleep well, I frowned, a little concerned when it didn’t show that the message had even been read within five minutes. Maybe she was showering.

  Or studying.

  Or lying dead and broken in the middle of her living room floor.

  Fuck.

  I called her.

  It went straight to voicemail.

  That’s when I decided to head over and merely drive by her house, check to make sure everything looked okay. But once I got to her place, her car wasn’t around, which momentarily freaked me out, until I remembered, oh yeah, I’d never taken her back to pick it up after I’d driven her home Friday night.

  Shit, I was going to have to get her back to her car eventually. Maybe I could pick her up for school in the morning and we could reunite her and her wheels after class.

  When I realized I’d been idling in my Jeep, staring at her apartment like a total creeper, I went ahead and put it in park at the curb. I mean, I might as well figure out the car situation with her now. Since she wasn’t answering her phone, it seemed safe enough to come over personally and straighten everything out. She wouldn’t get pissed about me showing up again after she’d just kicked me out because of that logical reason, right?

  I decided to take my chances, anyway. Better safe than sorry. Killing the engine, I opened my door and popped out to cross the street before jogging up her steps and knocking loudly so she’d hear me. A minute later, I drew my hands from my back pockets where I’d been resting them and knocked again.

  Another minute a
fter that, I told myself not to panic. Except it was obvious there was no life inside her apartment, and she couldn’t have gone far without her car. It was possible she was at her aunt’s visiting, but I couldn’t go there and find out; her aunt hated me.

  “Reese?” I called, knocking a little—okay, a lot—louder this time.

  “Trouble in paradise already?” a snarky voice asked from the base of the stairwell.

  I whirled around to find Eva smirking up at me.

  “Is Reese with you?” I blurted, forgetting Eva’s and my mutual dislike for each other. Worry overrode everything else.

  She lifted her hands as if displaying her own body. “Do you see her with me?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I mean, is she in the main house or anything?”

  “I doubt I’d come all the way out here to visit her if she was in the house.”

  It took everything I had not to growl at Reese’s aggravating cousin. Jogging down the steps to meet her, I said, “She’s not answering her door. Do you have a key?”

  “Wow.” Eva pulled back as if flabbergasted by my demand. “You don’t really think I’d just let you break into her place while she was gone, now do you?” She splayed her hand out toward the driveway in front of the garage. “Her car’s missing; she’s obviously not home.”

  I drew out a long, calming sigh before shaking my head. “No. She left her car at my place on Friday. She either has to be here or within walking distance of here.”

  “Then, I guess she’s somewhere within walking distance of here,” Eva answered in exasperation.

  “Or Jeremy has her up in that fucking apartment, tied to a chair, taking his knife to her again,” I exploded. “She’s not answering her phone, she’s not answering her door, and she’s not with her car. And no,” I added before Eva could ask, “we’re not fighting. At all. Everything between us is amazing, but my wicked bitch of a landlady threatened to call Reese’s ex and tell him where Reese was if I didn’t do what she wanted, so excuse the hell out of me for freaking the fuck out, but I just need to know that she’s okay. Alright?”

  Eva blinked at me once before turning away and saying, “I’ll go get the extra key.”

  My shoulders sagged with relief. Thank God.

  She returned within the minute, jogging toward me where I paced at the bottom of the steps. “What the hell do you know about Jeremy, anyway?” she muttered as she passed me and hurried up the steps.

  I followed directly on her heels. “I know everything.”

  “And who’s this landlady bitch threatening to hurt my cousin?”

  “Evil incarnate,” I muttered, only to pull up short when Eva whirled around after opening the door and pointed her keys at me.

  “You stay out here,” she commanded. “If you’re lying, and the two of you really are fighting, then no way am I going to let you use me as a means to get to her.”

  I lifted my hands and shifted a step back. “Fine. Just get in there and check on her.”

  She rolled her eyes but turned away and disappeared inside. I bit my thumbnail and tapped my toe impatiently. When Eva appeared a minute later, shrugging, my shoulders sagged.

  “Where the hell could she be?”

  “I’ll call her,” Eva announced, pulling her phone from her back pocket.

  It was my turn to roll my eyes. “I told you; Reese and I aren’t fighting.”

  “Right,” she said dryly, clearly not believing me, only to frown and pull her phone from her ear. “Straight to voicemail.”

  Told you, I wanted to mutter.

  “I’m going to drive around, maybe head over by the campus or coffee shop and look for her,” I announced.

  Eva nodded, her face paling, and her biting sarcasm vanished. “Me too. Give me your number; whoever finds her first lets the other one know.”

  “Okay. Good idea.” The bizarreness of cooperating with Eva so cordially didn’t even faze me as I took her phone when she handed it over so I could call myself. Once numbers were exchanged, we nodded to each other silently and headed our separate ways.

  Twenty minutes later, it was nearly ten thirty at night, and there was no sign of Reese anywhere. I returned to her apartment, my stomach cramping with fear. Hoping she’d come home while I was gone, I knocked on her door again, but no one answered.

  Sitting on the top step, I gripped my hands together and forced myself not to panic. But where the hell could she be? And why had she turned her phone off?

  I’d just pulled my phone from my pocket and was beginning to text Eva to see if she’d had any luck when a car on the street slowed and pulled into the drive, parking in front of the garage doors.

  Realizing it was Reese’s car, I switched my message to say:

  Mason: All’s good. She’s home.

  Then I pocketed the phone and took a deep breath, forcing myself to remain calm and stay sitting there instead of jumping up and racing to her like I wanted to. If I overreacted, she’d sense how panicked and scared I’d been, and I didn’t want to alarm her.

  “Mason!” Popping from her car, she waved big before flying up the stairs toward me. “What’re you doing here? Oh my God. You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

  Not as happy as I was to see her, I bet.

  As soon as she plopped herself onto my lap, we came together, kissing greedily as if it had been years instead of hours since we’d last been together. I clutched her face in my hands and licked into her mouth, then stood up, carrying her with me.

  “I couldn’t stay away,” I said, against her mouth as I turned us toward the door where she rushed to unlock it while I continued to hold her. “I couldn’t leave things like they were. Jesus, where the hell have you been?”

  “I’ll explain later,” she said tossing down her keys and purse to wrap her arms fully around my neck. Then she kissed me some more.

  After kicking the door shut, I leaned her against it and pinned her up off her feet with my hips as I ground against her core and ripped her shirt over her head. She wrapped her legs around my waist while I stripped away her bra.

  “Oh, wow, you’re really good at this,” she panted, helping me with my shirt next.

  “I need inside you. Now,” I growled, not really wanting to stop pressing my dick up against her through our jeans, yet knowing it was the only logical next step if I wanted to actually get inside her.

  We both released a moan of complaint when I set her feet down and stepped back. Then we each rushed, Reese shedding her jeans completely and me only shoving mine down until my cock sprang free, which I promptly covered with a handy condom from the box that was still sitting nearby on the key table.

  A second later, I picked her back up and pressed her spine to the door. Then I pushed my hips forward just as I let her slide down enough to impale herself.

  “Oh, God,” she groaned, tossing her head back and panting as I worked steadily in and out of her, giving her no time to adjust to the change, just mercilessly fucking her full force straight out of the gate.

  She came all over my cock in record time, crying out from the force of her orgasm and biting my shoulder to abate the intensity. The pressure of her sweet inner muscles squeezing around me made me clench my teeth and fight my own climax, because I wasn’t ready yet. I wanted this to last.

  “What have you done to me?” I asked, staring dazedly into her eyes as I kept thrusting, unable to stop. “Why can’t I never get enough of you? Why do I always want more?”

  Cradling my face in her hands, Reese smiled softly. “Because we’re soulmates, baby. Half of you is inside me, and you’re always going to want to be close to me so you can reunite with the other half of yourself and feel whole again. It’s the same way with me. I can’t get enough of you, either.”

  My body tensed and strained, fighting off the orgasm that was on the brink of coming. Cradling her face the same way she was mine, I gasped, “God, I love you,” just before clashing our mouths together and coming so hard I saw stars.

&n
bsp; We held each other a good five minutes into the aftermath, clinging together with an earth-shattering awareness that this thing between us went way beyond anything either of us had ever experienced before.

  “Wow,” Reese rasped as soon as I pulled free of her. She slid down to sit on the welcome mat, her back still flush against the door. “I had no idea breaking the law could make a girl so crazy horny.”

  I collapsed next to her, running my hands through my damp, sweaty hair and trying to make sense of her words. “Do I even want to know what you mean by that?”

  Grinning at me, she announced, “I totally lied to you this morning.”

  Blinking once, then twice, I cocked my head to the side. “Say what?”

  “I mean…” Flushing, she laughed at herself. “Not an out-and-out lie, but a lie of omission to lead you astray. But not like, a terrible, earth-shattering—”

  “Okay.” I lifted a hand to interrupt and get her back on track. “What exactly did you lie about?”

  “Oh. Right.” Rolling her eyes at herself, she explained, “It wasn’t just any client that messaged you this morning. It was Mrs. Garrison.”

  My face drained of color as I gaped at her.

  “She wanted you to come back.” Reese rolled her eyes dramatically. “Said she had her finger on Jeremy’s number and was going to call him if you didn’t go over there tonight at ten.”

  I glanced at my watch. Ten forty-five. Shit, what if she’d—Wait.

  I snapped my attention back to Reese. She’d walked far enough to go somewhere close to my house in order to retrieve her car…and in turn, close to Patricia’s house.

  “What did you do?” I gasped in horror.

  Her smile bloomed proudly as her chin went up. “I answered the text for you, telling her I’d be there. Except, she thought it would be you who showed up. Not me.”

  “You went to her house? You actually…holy shit, babe. What did you think to accomplish there? What did she do to you? Are you okay? Did she—”

  Pressing her hand to my mouth, Reese cut me off with a scowl. “I just love your faith in my ability to take care of myself,” she muttered. “Really.”